Rare bird

Apple is protecting ICE goons

 

They never learn

 And it never gets old.

Once again, someone gets duped into making a huge donation to Trump and then getting thrown under the bus.

UPDATE 04:05 pm:

I hope this forces Apple to sue Trump.  Thank you for your attention to this matter.

And forces Tim Cook to go home and think about what he did in giving Trump's inauguration fund a million dollars.   Fool.

 UPDATE 04:32 pm:

And Trump is the king of fairness, as we all know.

Somebody reminded him of that million dollars from Cook, didn't they?

Laws are for the little people

 

Idiocracy

Rep. Dan Crenshaw complained to Tim Cook today that Apple Maps still has not changed the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America after Trump’s executive order. (It does not apply to private businesses).

  Meidas Touch

But I won't be surprised if I later see that Cook actually makes the change.

The destruction of Twitter is almost complete

Technically, I think it was because they put IBM advertising next to Nazi advertising.  At any rate, Musk paid over $40B for Twitter, which he is consistently turning into a hotbed of MAGA garbage.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 06:15 pm:

UPDATE 11/18/2023:

Other big advertisers pulling out of X:  Comcast/NBCUniversal, Paramount Global, Warner Brothers Discovery

Elon Musk has said he will be filing a “thermonuclear lawsuit” against Media Matters and others, after major US companies paused their adverts on his social media site over concerns about antisemitism.

The media watchdog Media Matters said earlier this week that it found corporate advertisements by IBM, Apple, Oracle and Comcast’s Xfinity were being placed alongside antisemitic content, including that praising Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

It led to a number of big names in technology and media announcing they would be withdrawing their advertising.

  The Guardian

Well, if they got screenshots, his bomb will fizzle.

Musk on Wednesday agreed with a post on X that falsely claimed Jewish people were stoking hatred against white people, saying the user, who referenced the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, was speaking “the actual truth”.

 

UPDATE 11/18/2023 09:53 am:  Still abandoning the ship.

Feeling the pressure...

UPDATE 11/21/2023:

The only problem with serious and legitimate accounts leaving Xitter for Threads is that the unserious, illegitimate, and just plain xitty accounts will follow.  Hopefully Threads will keep the worst xit at bay.

UPDATE 11/21/2023 07:23 am:

UPDATE 11/22/2023:  Still leaking advertisers.  He won't last long like this.

I don't get it

I don't see a lot of use for this. Unless it's for people who love to hear themselves talk.

But this is Apple's excuse:

The tech giant notes that these tools will help users who are speech-impaired. For example, a man who was diagnosed with ALS and is losing his ability to speak said, “If you can tell them you love them, in a voice that sounds like you, it makes all the difference in the world.”

[...]

Personal Voice, will give users randomized text prompts to generate 15 minutes of audio. Another feature, Live Speech, will allow users to save commonly used phrases for the device to speak during phone calls and in-person conversations.

Not sure why you can't just speak yourself.  If  you are losing your ability to speak, do it now.  Also, actions speak louder than words.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

On that slippery slope

Apple will roll out an update later this year that will include technology in iPhones and iPads that allows the tech giant to detect images of child sexual abuse stored in iCloud, the company announced Thursday.

The feature is part of a series of updates Apple unveiled aimed at increasing child safety, but security researchers and advocates are warning the scanning update — along with one that aims to give parents protective tools in children’s messages — could pose data and security risks beyond the intended purpose.

With the new scanning feature, Apple will be able to report detected child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which acts as a comprehensive reporting center and works in collaboration with law enforcement agencies across the country. The company will also disable users accounts if the abusive content is found, Apple said in the update.

Apple said its method to detect the abusive material is “designed with user privacy in mind.” Instead of scanning images in the cloud, the system performs “on-device matching” using a database of known child sexual abuse material image hashes provided by child safety organizations.

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Facebook helped Trump in 2016

James Barnes spoke with the Wall Street Journal over the last three weeks to detail how he helped guide the Trump campaign to use Facebook tools and products to Trump’s advantage. Barnes left Facebook this spring, and says he is now dedicated to using the same digital-ad strategies he helped Trump exploit to get him out of office in 2020.

  The Daily Beast

Well, thanks, asshole. Now everbody knows what those are and can defend against them.

Barnes told the Journal that he felt pressure while at the company and described in detail how he felt Facebook’s role helped launch Trump to victory. While he says he remains supportive of Facebook’s mission, he said he is uneasy about the reach of the company’s political influence. He told the paper the one question that nags him about his time with Facebook is, “Did I actually do the right thing?”

Obviously, no. And particularly since you're doing the opposite now.

Barnes, a Facebook employee embedded with the campaign and who was once called its “MVP,” took his digital talents to the liberal group Acronym. He came to the organization as it charts out a $75 million plan to help liberals close the gap with Trump online.

“I was absolutely crushed the morning after the election,” Barnes said on Acronym’s podcast, FWIW.

[...]

Barnes, previously a Republican, supported Trump’s campaign through Facebook’s program to help political candidates use the platform. Hillary Clinton also had support from Facebook.

  Vice

Zuckerberg isn't stupid. Like any corporation, they're going to grease palms on both sides so they're always in position no matter which side wins.

“It just was not adopted on the left as it was on the right,” [Tatenda Musapatike, a staffer who worked with Democrats' campaigns] said of Facebook’s efforts. “There were established ways of doing things and I think Democrats were really, really cautious to change — to, I think, our detriment.”

The boot-strapped Trump campaign, however, embraced Barnes’ guidance. It pumped out torrents of cheap, at-times divisive ads to highly targeted audiences, spreading its message and culling small-dollar fundraising.

[...]

Facebook will be even more central to the 2020 contest. Trump has vastly outspent his Democratic rivals so far, crushing fundraising records and enticing users to share all-important personal data.

[...]

“One thing I want to be really clear on is that I voted for Hillary Clinton,” he added. “I despised Donald Trump from the moment I learned of him. And my commitment in the 2016 election had much less to do with supporting him or his platform and a lot more to do with supporting Facebook’s commitment to democracy.”

Keep telling yourself that.

President Donald Trump hosted a previously undisclosed dinner with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook board member Peter Thiel at the White House in October, the company told NBC News on Wednesday.

[...]

Zuckerberg also gave a speech at Georgetown University the week before, detailing his company’s commitment to free speech, and its resistance to calls for the company to crack down on misinformation in political advertisements.

[...]

It is unclear why the meeting was not made public or what Trump, Zuckerberg and [Facebook board member Peter] Thiel discussed.

[...]

The dinner was the second meeting between Zuckerberg and Trump in a month. Zuckerberg also met with the president in the Oval Office during a September visit to the capital.

  NBC

Gee...let me think...what could they be talking about?

A major donor to Trump’s campaign, Thiel is also the chairman of Palantir, a private data technology company that has become one of the largest recipients of government defense contracts with the United States government since Trump took office.

Thiel famously bankrolled an invasion of privacy lawsuit that effectively bankrupted the gossip website Gawker. Zuckerberg’s speech at Georgetown, which he delivered on the same trip in which he met with Trump, was titled “Standing for Voice and Free Expression.”

Probably never batted an eye at the contradiction.

On Wednesday, Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook toured an Apple manufacturing plant in Austin, Texas.

Trump and Cook have maintained a very public working relationship as the Apple CEO seeks to keep Apple products exempt from the president’s tariffs on China.

What's the quid pro quo?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Sorry, I can't get to the WSJ because it's behind a pay wall.  If I find another article that quotes more of it, I'll post below.

UPDATE:

LOLOLOL

Now it's a different story.



Yeah, who doesn't say a CEO's first name plus their company as a way to save time and words?  It's a common practice.

Before people widely published the audio, this was his excuse:



The Putz couldn't have just admitted he misspoke?

Of course, he didn't tweet that first excuse, so maybe he figures his base won't have seen it.  Or maybe it's just because the video clearly shows him saying "Tim Apple" without a beat in between the two names to say Cook, softly or otherwise, and since he simply cannot tell the truth, he devised a different lie.

Two donors who were there told me they couldn't understand why the president would make such a claim given the whole thing is captured on video. Nobody cared, they said, and Tim Cook took it in good humor by changing his Twitter profile to Tim Apple.

"I just thought, why would you lie about that," one of the donors told me. "It doesn't even matter!"

  Axios

I have a question for the donor: why are you still giving this asshat money?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Somebody knows all about you

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Trade wars are good and easy to win

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

They should have refused the invitation

The article itself says there was a national crew from ABC in attendance, and they were allowed to interview Ivanka.  It also says there were both supporters and protesters outside the school.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Corporate-Government tech alliance

Apple is slated to unveil later this year a new portal that law enforcement agencies can use to submit and track requests for user data related to investigations.

[...]

In recent years, federal investigators and law enforcement agencies have begun to ramp up their information requests.

[...]

The company can provide some data to law enforcement that users store on its iCloud service, however, it doesn't have as easy access to its encrypted phones. Apple has, in the past, pushed back against law enforcement authorities who have tried to get it to provide a way into its phones.

The company has staked a firm position that introducing backdoors for law enforcement would create vulnerabilities that could be exploited by nefarious actors.

  The Hill

And they'll do it anyway now apparently. Perhaps because there isn't a Snowden-type scandal and that one has pretty much died out.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

That Was Quick

About 7 hours it was available apparently.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

And the Timing?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  They've pulled it again.

Couldn't Get a Better Deal?

The FBI paid about $1.3m for software to hack into the iPhone of San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook, director James Comey told a London audience on Thursday.

  Guardian

Holy shit. But, let's not fool ourselves. The FBI didn't pay that much. We did. Taxpayers.

When asked Thursday how much the FBI paid for the exploit, Comey replied: “A lot.”

What’s a lot? “More than I will make in the remainder of this job, which is seven years and four months,” Comey said.

The FBI director makes $180,000 a year. That means the FBI paid at least $1.26m, not counting the four months.

Oh! Okay, not "about" $1.3m, but somewhere OVER that amount.

“It was, in my view, worth it,” [Comey] said.

Really?!? Then you need glasses, asshat,because word has it, you got nothing from it.

April 13: A law enforcement source tells CBS News that so far nothing of real significance has been found on the San Bernardino terrorist's iPhone, which was unlocked by the FBI last month without the help of Apple.

It was stressed that the FBI continues to analyze the information on the cellphone seized in the investigation, senior investigative producer Pat Milton reports.

[...]

FBI Director James Comey said last week that the bureau has not decided whether to share details with Apple about how it hacked into Farook's iPhone 5c. "If we tell Apple, they're going to fix it and we're back where we started," Comey said. "As silly as it may sound, we may end up there. We just haven't decided yet."

  CBS News

I'll tell you what sounds silly - that you think it was worth $1.3 million.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Shocking! The FBI Lied

The Justice Department said Monday that it had found a way to unlock an iPhone without help from Apple, allowing the agency to withdraw its legal effort to compel the company to assist in a mass-shooting investigation.

  NYTimes

Seriously, I'm guessing they couldn't find enough dummies in Congress or the courts to believe their shit in the first place. Why on earth did they think they could bamboozle Apple's own tech gurus?

And you thought Glenn Greenwald had no sense of humor.

Looks Like Apple Won't Be Bullied

If the F.B.I. wins its court fight to force Apple’s help in unlocking an iPhone, the agency may run into yet another roadblock: Apple’s engineers. Apple employees are already discussing what they will do if ordered to help law enforcement authorities. Some say they may balk at the work, while others may even quit their high-paying jobs rather than undermine the security of the software they have already created, according to more than a half-dozen current and former Apple employees.

  NYT

And the case, if won by Apple, might actually set a precedent that would prevent the FBI from getting bully results in future cases.

What to do?

Oh, gee. I guess they can get the info on their own (or with the help of the NSA) after all. What a surprise.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Caveat Emptor

Apple leaves Amazon for Google’s cloud service
Wait, what?! File under ‘Wow, I didn’t know!’ because I really though Apple housed all its cloud services under its own roof. I mean, I’ve written about data farms before, pointed to a new Apple location. I didn’t know Apple had outsourced some of its iCloud to Amazon.

[...]

No wonder Apple is moving to Google, considering Amazon’s relationship with certain government agencies as a cloud service provider. Some of Apple’s data will remain with Amazon for now; we might wonder if this is content like iTunes versus users’ data. Keep your eyes open for future Apple cloud migrations.

  Emptywheel

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.